Altoona, Iowa: New Contender for MidWest Project

Nebraska and Iowa have been battling it our for major data center projects for years. The two states are currently engaged in a protracted competition to attract a new data center campus, which could result in investment of more than $1 billion. It’s the latest example of “code name” projects in which large companies seek to remain secret as they scout locations for data centers.

This week speculation has focused on the town of Altoona, Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. A mystery company operating as Project Catapult, has an option on land in Altoona and has submitted site plans to local officials showing phased construction of three data centers, each between 350,000 and 380,000 square feet in size.

Nebraska’s leading candidate has appeared to be Kearney, Nebraska, where local officials were confident enough about their chances that in late March the city council approved spending $1.7 million to acquire land for the project. Nebraska officials have described the project using a codename of Project Edge.

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About the Author

Rich Miller is the founder and editor at large of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.

There's been no announcement of the final site for Project Edge, the $1 billion data center project scouting sites in Nebraska or Iowa. But officials in Kearney, Nebraska are confident enough that the city council has approved spending $1.7 million to acquire land for the project.. Read More

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